Jun 5, 2011

Moist chocolate chip muffins loaded with chocolate morsels in every bite. What a perfect way to start you morning if chocolate is your weakness. Also great as an afternoon snack.

These originally started with whole wheat flour, but after a few attempts at these I got the best results using self-rising cake flour. The taste and texture was exactly what I expect from a muffin. Next time I may try to do a blend of white whole wheat flour and cake flour to see how they come out. Until then I didn't want to keep you waiting!

If you are watching your sugar intake, I'm sure these would work great with a Splenda blend.

130 comments
:

They look great! I'm curious if you ever use white wheat? It's become my staple for muffins, love baking with it, especially when I'm trying to get the balance of "yummy enough my kids will eat" and "let's sneak some healthy in there".

Christi - Yes, I do, I play around with all flours. I agree, I prefer white wheat to whole wheat in baking for the same reason. I didn't have any on hand when making these, if you use it let me know how they turn out. I believe it's white because it is used from a softer part of the wheat.

Note: this was self rising flour so if you use regular flour you will have to increase the baking soda and add a pinch of salt.

I made this today but used peanut butter chips rather than chocolate chips. It tasted like a tandy cake! I just need to put a glaze of chocolate on the top and voila - tandy cake. I also used 1 tsp of baking soda and 1 tsp of salt.

Muffins have become my new obsession. I love making them and this recipe looks awesome. I try to use as much wheat flour as possible in my recipes I find that it gives it a much heartier texture. I personally like it but my kids like it a bit more fluffy so maybe I will try the cake flour or as another reader suggested the half white and wheat flour.

Have you ever baked with Whole Wheat Pastry flour? I use it in pancakes, muffins and cookies. It's ground from soft white wheat and has a texture more similar to AP flour. It's much more light and fluffy, and less grainy than regular white wheat flour (which I use a lot too...mostly in yeast breads). It is supposed to have the same fiber and nutrients as WW flour. Just a suggestion :) These look really yummy! LOVE your site!

Hey Gina, Just made these and thought I would share my results. Made them with fat free greek yogurt (bought for the Tikka Masala I made for dinner last night, thank you!) as I didn't have any ricotta in the house. Used regular flour and regular ICBINB, again b/c it's all I had and managed to squeeze 15 muffins out of the batter resulting in a 4 pt treat. They were very generously sized, and really really awesome. Was thinking I might add some orange zest next time as I like that flavour combo. With this muffin base, the flavour combos are endless. Thanks so much. Now I need to make those granola bars.

Would using slenda or equal change the points value? Thank you so much for these new recipe ideas! Just when I was getting really fed up with the same stuff all the time I stumbled across your page!! Happy creating!

I made these yesterday and don't think they turned out quite like they were suppose to. They are really thick and not very soft at all. I used regular flour more baking soda and the salt as you suggested. I had to use cream cheese instead of ricotta since I didnt have any no time to go to the store. But they still tasted really good!

Gina, I have been thinking about it and flavoured yogurt might be really nice too, lemon yogurt with raspberries, or vanilla yogurt with the chocolate chips, ooh, what about coffee flavoured for a mocha muffin!? The muffins are gone already, kids and husband loved them, great for breakfast and lunches! Thanks again for all your work, I cook from Skinny Taste 75% of the time.

For those without FF ricotta, I used part-skim ricotta and didn't have light butter so I used regular but 1 Tbsp less. I also cut out a Tbsp of choc chips with the hope of them still being 5 points with my higher fat substitutions but they ended up 6 anyways. Super tasty. Thanks Gina!

I made these the first time following the recipe to the t and they were delicious!! Made them again and substituted the chocolate chips with lemon juice,zest and blueberries. They came out incredible! Thanks Gina!

I made these Saturday night and they are DELICIOUS!! This is a great recipe. I followed it exactly and the muffins are super moist and fill any chocolate chip cookie craving. I froze half of them for a later date.

I made this today and I am not sure how the batter was supposed to turn out. The batter I ended up with felt more like a cookie batter- it was extremely thick and doughy. I used whole wheat flour but I added a little more baking soda. I do not know what went wrong. I haven't tried them yet though, so I don't know if they taste good but they feel a little tough.

Hi Gina! These are in the oven now and I'm crossing my fingers, although I had to use regular butter :( I actually have batter left so do you think the batter would freeze well or the muffins themselves? I'm not sure being that there is ricotta in the mix. I hope so otherwise, I will be giving out muffins for days :)

This if my first comment on your website, but I tried a lot of your recipes! I wanted to say that I juste made these for the first time and they're delicious! I often find that ''healthy'' muffin have a weird texture, but these are great!

I was wondering if you have experimented using something other than granulated sugar (and not an artifical sweetner like splendda..etc) do you think honey would work or brown sugar..just something other than granulated sugar?

Gina, have you ever baked with almond flour? I read that it has calcium in it and I have a child who doesn't drink milk, so I'm always looking for ways to increase calcium. I'd love to know your thoughts. Thanks!!

Made these yesterday and they're fabulous! I couldn't find self-rising cake flour either so going off some substitution lists online I used 1 3/4 all-purpose flour then added the 3/4 tsp baking powder you suggested. I also used 1 c fat free greek yogurt instead of the ricotta and the turned out great! Really moist and light with great texture.

Thanks for this Gina. I made them yesterday and they came out a bit dry. Would you happen to know why? I'd like to fix it for next time! I mistakenly put in 1 tsp too much of baking powder. Could it be that?

Sorry, just to clarify my previous question. I mistakenly put in 1 tsp of baking powder in addition to all the other ingredients, when the recipe didn't list baking powder at all. Do you think that might be why they came out dry?

Thanks for replying, Gina. I used all purpose flour plus 1 tsp baking powder - which was supposed to substitute the self-rising flour. Then I accidentally added another 1 tsp of baking powder, which was a mistake. I just don't know why they came out dry, and I want to make sure this doesn't happen again next time I make them... Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks!

These were divine! I used regular cake flour with 3/4 tsp baking powder (total, not in addition to) and a pinch of salt. I couldn't find fat-free ricotta so had to use low-fat, and i used regular butter. But I did get 16 muffins instead of just 12, so I'm calling them 6 points each. :)

I too used low fat ricotta instead of fat free as I had some on hand from a previous recipe. I used 1 cup white cake flour and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour with 1 tsp extra baking powder. I also used only 6 1/2 tablespoons of chocolate chips (it was all I had left after making the chocolate chocolate chip banana muffins twice!). They turned out wonderfully and were a big hit with my coworkers too! They came up to 201 cals each with these changes.

I substituted cottage cheese for the ricotta and splenda for the sugar. I'm a picky eater, but my hubby isn't. He didn't really like them, so my guess is the splenda and/or the cottage cheese substitutes were a bad idea.

How strange- I made these for the second time because the first time was awesome. This time, the batter came out very cookie-dough texture. I had a very hard time getting the sugar and butter to cream- could that have done it? hope they are still tasty!

I just wanted to tell you how AMAZING these are!! I have made them your way but with splenda and they are great! My husband doesnt like chocolate so I made them with cinnamon chips and they were SO yummy. I was wondering though how you get 12, I always end up with 20 or more.

Thank you for this recipe! I've been looking for a use for my extra ricotta cheese after making your delicious stuffed shells and this is so tasty! I couldn't find cake flour, so I just used two cups self-rising flour without any added salt or baking soda and it worked perfectly :) not sure how it alters the points but I used up my ricotta and my husband is very happy ;)

I just made these and they came out great! I slightly adapted the recipe by using vanilla yogurt instead of ricotta cheese and substituting some agave nectar for some sugar. They taste like heaven... even better warmed yup. Off to have a second!

I was out of ricotta but I had some left over Chobani greek yogurt in the fridge from when I made your snow man cup cakes so I substituted the ricotta with the chobani and YUM! Sooooo good, Light,fluffy, chocolate-y goodness!

I didnt have self rising cake flour so I used regular flour and added salt and baking soda. I may have actually been too heavy on the baking soda. The dough was very sticky, and the final product came out a little dry. Could that have been why?

Ok- made these for the third time and they came out great. I think the secret was to make sure the butter and sugar were really well creamed, and then be super-careful not to overstir once the flour is added. Thanks again!

As Gina said up front, cake flour gave her the best consistency. I used all purpose flour with 1 1/4 tsp baking powder and the consistency of the batter was just like cookie dough. Someone also made this comment, and said that not overmixing could prevent this. Anyway, they did rise like muffins but came out pretty dry and bland. I may try and use cake flour next time and part-skim ricotta for more flavor, add one point to each muffin.

I was just told about this website. Already love it. First recipe I made was the Ricotta Muffins with white wheat flour. Family loves them. I am keeping to one. (nice treat). How would I figure calories count if I put in blueberries instead of chocolate chips. Thinking it might be less calories.

Gina,I LOVE your site and use it often! I know this question has been asked many times,but would I use 3/4 tsp. of baking powder or 3/4 tsp. of baking soda? One of your comments said powder but then a couple of your others said soda if using regular cake flour? Thank you for your awesome recipes my family really enjoys them :)

So, I misread Gina's comment on using AP flour - this is what I did and it tasted awesome! I used the amount of regular AP flour as specified, 3/4 tsp of baking SODA and a pinch of salt. Mine took a total of 17 minutes to bake. Delicious! Thank you, Gina!

I have a batch in the oven right now! It's going to be interesting because I had to change them sightly based on what I had on hand...I just couldn't wait to try them any longer! I got way more than 12 muffins somehow, but I'm not complaining! Can't wait to taste the finished product! Yum~

Just made these. I ate a fair amount of the batter, so I didn't even have room for one whole muffin when they came out! But what I ate of one was soooooo good! Have to bring to work tomorrow to limit damage.

I just made these and like some others, my batter was thick, more like cookie dough. Also, like some others , I got 15 rather than 12 muffins. I used a sugar substitute, and ran the recipe through the WW recipe builder it didn't change the PP+ value of Gina's original recipe, but that's ok. Although my batch didn't come out looking NEARLY as pretty as Gina's pictures depict, they are yummy!

I loved these. My batter was thick like cookie dough. Next time I may trying making a cookie as a test out of the batter. The muffin was dense but it felt like an indulgent treat with the chocolate chips. I used white whole wheat flour & halved the recipe, making 6 muffins. Im going to try freezing a few. This recipe is a keeper.

New to your site and love it! I can't wait to try these muffins but I have a question - would it still work with applesauce instead of ICBINB light? I regularly make that substitution when baking cakes and it works really well. Thanks!

These were really good! A tip for anyone who can't find self rising cake flour, or even regular cake flour: For every cup of flour, put back two tablespoons and add two tablespoons of cornstarch instead. Sift five times. Add a pinch of salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder. Sift again. There you have self rising cake flour! Mine were very dense, but I like them that way. I would make them again.

I wonder all these people complaining about the muffins turning out dry or too dense...they know a muffin is DIFFERENT than a cupcake, right? They're kinda supposed to be like that. That's like complaining that scones are too dry and flakey...they're supposed to be.

I made these yesterday, swapping out sugar for stevia and they turned out great. I didn't have any mini chips on hand, just used regular sized chocolate chips and they ended up being perfect. Thanks for sharing!

I've baked these twice now and used Gold Medal self rising bread flour, it works just fine. These are delicious, I use half chocolate chips and half raspberries, I also use coconut palm sugar, which makes them less sweet.

I didn't have any self rising cake flour (or any cake flour for that matter). After scouring the internet for a workable substitute, I wound up using 1 cup plain old Gold Medal All Purpose Flour and 7/8 cup GM White Whole Wheat Flour, adding 2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder and 1/2 tsp Salt.

I also reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup (because that's how I roll).

Gotta say...these were pretty good! Even though I didn't really get any cheese flavor...they were definitely moist and delicious! The muffins had a great fluffy texture and nice crisp to the crown. I waaaaas going to bring them to work, but then hubby and I ate two a piece fresh out of the oven. I guuuuess we'll just have to work on the rest (because who brings six muffins to work? Right?!.....for those paying attention to math, clearly we each need another one for breakfast.)

Thanks for the recipe Gina! Definitely have a go-to for my leftover ricotta now :)